


First Birthday

by ThePendragonQueen



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Birthday Party, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Lance never celebrates his birthday, light mention of death during child birth, not graphic, vaguely mentions Lances parents/grandparent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:35:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25351735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePendragonQueen/pseuds/ThePendragonQueen
Summary: Lance never celebrated his birthday, not after his mother died during childbirth from an unwanted pregnancy. His grandparents decided his birthday would be nothing but a reminder of the grief from losing their own daughter. Now the team is in space and trying to celebrate birthdays for a semblance of normalcy in their life but Lance doesn't want to tell them when his is. He's never celebrated before, why start now?
Kudos: 32





	First Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, this was written a while ago on my tumblr, decided to start uploading things here.

Lance stared up at the balloons that were tied on a nearby chair. They were brightly colored and read “Happy Birthday”. They weren’t for him- they never were. They were for Coran and Allura.

Since Coran was Altean, him and Allura never really had an “Earth Birthday” as they called it, and being unable to match their calendars up to Earths, everyone just decided to celebrate theirs today- July 27.

They wanted to give them the full experience. Cake, balloons, presents, pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, everything. They were happy without a doubt, although a bit confused. They ended up mixing their own Altean culture into the party but it made it all the better.

Lance enjoyed the party. He always liked talking to others and playing games and eating cake. Everything about this was great for him- so long as it wasn’t for him.

Lance had never celebrated his birthday- no one in his family ever let him. They considered it taboo. Lance wasn’t supposed to have a birthday, he wasn’t even supposed to be born. He was an accident. An unwanted surprised born into a poor family. His mom was young when she got pregnant and had little to no money. His dad ran away and refused to give any support.

Everyone advised his mom to get an abortion but she didn’t. Lance wasn’t sure if it was that she didn’t want to or just didn’t have the money too. He usually likes to fool himself into thinking it was the former. Everyone then advised she give him up for adoption, put him into foster care. She decided against that as well. She said that system was terrible- no child belonged there. She was right. But she still couldn’t take care of him.

That’s when Lance’s grandparents decided to step in. They offered to take Lance in the meantime, just until his mom was ready to raise a child. That day never came.

There were complications in labor. Too much blood loss, weak hearts, emergency surgery. In the end only one survived. The supposed-to-be-beautiful day was quickly turned bitter sweet. Lance was born but at what costs?

His grandparents now had a permanent child. A permanent reminder of how they no longer had a daughter. They tried to act like it was okay, like they didn’t blame Lance. But he knew. He knew they blamed him for her death. He knew they were still bitter about it. He could see it in the way they looked at him. And while they never treated Lance badly he could always see the hesitation in their faces.

From the moment he was born it was decided his birthday wouldn’t be celebrated. Why would it? Celebrate on the day he lost his mom? The day his grandparents lost their daughter? It wasn’t worth it.

Lance’s birthday became just like every other day. He went to school, came home, did his homework, made dinner, and went to bed. There were no cakes or candles or balloons or happy birthday songs. No one outside of his family even knew it was his birthday. Even Lance found himself forgetting the date sometimes.

When Coran and Allura decided to celebrate their own birthdays he was happy to play along but he couldn’t shake the thought that the next day was his own birthday. The day that nobody on this ship knew about. He planned to keep it that way.

It was an innocent conversation of birthday fun. Asking and hearing when everyone’s was and how they celebrated. Hunk baked cakes and cooked many dishes with his mom. Pidge hung out with her family and got the newest technology from her brother. The Galaxy Garrison through a little party for Shiro. Even Keith blew out a single candle by himself. But Lance… he did nothing but mourn.

“What about you, Lance?” Pidge asked smiling at him.

Lance snapped up from his daydream to focus on Pidge. “Huh?”

“Your birthday. What do you do to celebrate?” She repeated.

Lance’s heart dropped. What did he do? What did he say? “O-oh. My birthday? Lots of… stuff. Birthday stuff… duh,” he said nervously. Really? He couldn’t have pulled something better off? Maybe something a bit more convincing.

Hunk frowned. He seemed deep in thought. “Hey, Lance, when is your birthday? I feel like I should know but… I can’t think of you ever telling me.”

“Uh, I told you when it was. I can’t believe you forgot!” Lance faked sounded hurt and angry. He had never actually told Hunk but maybe he could make him feel bad for “forgetting”.

“You did?” Hunk asked sounding confused. “Huh, I don’t remember,” he said scratching his head.

Lance pretended to be shocked. “Uh, yeah I told you. I’m hurt you don’t remember.”

“Isn’t it October 29th?” Pidge asked.

Keith shook his head. “No, mine is October. But it’s the 23rd. Shiros is the 29th. Of February though.”

“Wait- you’re a leap day baby?” Lance asked. He was actually curious but also desperate to steer the conversation away from him. “Doesn’t that make you like…” Lance did the math on his fingers. “Six?”

Shiro chuckled. “Yeah, theoretically I’m only six years old. I usually just celebrate my birthday on March 1st, though.”

The conversation continued on for a couple more minutes until Lance stood up, yawning and stretching. “Well guys, this was fun but I need my beauty sleep. Catch you all tomorrow,” he said as he turned and headed on to his bedroom.

As he neared the door Hunk called out to him. “Hey wait you never answered when your birthday was!”

“I already told you!” Lance shouted back as he continued to walk out without hesitation. Anything to keep away from his own birthday.

When Lance woke up the next day and walked to the break room the last thing he expected to see were the Paladins gathered around a cake. Were they still up from last night? Had they stayed there all night celebrating for Allura and Coran?

As he entered he heard them whispering to each other. Lance was wondering about what but just one step into the room and the others whipped around to see him, a startled look on their faces. “Surprise!” They all yelled out of unison.

Lance stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the banner above. They had crossed out “Allura and Coran” and replaced it with Lance’s name. “Huh?” He mumbled confused and still half asleep.

“Happy Birthday, Lance!” Allura yelled with a wide smile. All the others were beaming at him.

Lance stood in the doorway confused and slowly starting to wake up and realize what was going on. Emotions bubbled through his head. “I… how- how did you know-?”

Lance was cut off by a fast talking Pidge. “Well, you were being all sketchy last night so we decided to look it up and I remembered that I had hacked into the Garrison before to get myself in and had accidentally downloaded all the files of the students. Yours was in there as well. Your birthday was on it,” she finished up shrugging.

“Why didn’t you tell us, Lance?” Allura asked.

Keith nodded. “Yeah, you’re always looking to be the center of attention. I figured you would want the whole Universe to know it was your birthday.”

Lance twiddled his thumbs as he stood awkwardly in the doorway. He couldn’t think of a way to answer. “Umm, I just, I never- well… I never really… celebrated my birthday.” Lance finished off the sentence quietly with his head bowed a little lower.

The team looked at him confused. “What? Why?” Hunk asked sounding confused.

“I thought all Earthlings celebrated their birthdays?” Coran asked sounding more confused then ever.

“Yeah, are you one of those weird people who refuse to celebrate any holidays including your birthday?” Pidge asked adjusting her glasses.

Lance dropped his hands. “What? No, that’s not what it is I just… it doesn’t matter,” he finished off.

The team stared at him awkwardly for a couple seconds, unsure of what to do next.

Shiro finally stepped forward towards Lance. As he walked up Lance felt his heart race in his chest. Shiro places a hand on his shoulder. “Lance, if you don’t feel comfortable doing this we can put it all away.”

“What? No! No! I… I like this. You guys went through all this trouble for me…” Lance spoke softly. No one had ever done this much for him. Not even close.

“Well, yeah, of course we did, you’re our friend,” Hunk spoke from behind Shiro.

Lance smiled. His friend. Yeah they were all friends and friends tell other friends what’s wrong and what’s on their mind. Lance took a deep breath before starting. “It’s just… I was kind of an accident. My mom was young and poor and alone. She wasn’t sure what to do but decided to keep me. Except… when the time came she… she didn’t make it. Her parents took me in instead. They never celebrated my birthday because the day the gained a grandson was the day they lost a daughter. I guess they didn’t want to be reminded of that.”

The rest of the team was silent. They stood shocked and slightly horrified. They never knew Lance’s mom was dead. They never knew he was all alone, that he was an orphan from the start.

Surprisingly Keith was the first to speak. “I… I’m sorry.”

Lance smiled in an answer that it was okay. If anyone else knew what it was like to be an orphan it was Keith. Shiro squeezed Lance’s shoulder tightly and gave him a big smile. Everything stayed quiet and slightly awkward.

“So… do you want some cake?” Hunk finally managed.

Lance shrugged. “Yeah, I mean, I love cake.”

The Paladins walked over to the cake where a single candle stood lit. They all crowded around the table and smiled up at Lance as they started to sing “Happy Birthday”. Lance smiled, tears pricking the corners of his eyes as he watched his friends sing him “Happy Birthday” for the first time in his life.

Once they finished Hunk smiled at him happily. “Make a wish, buddy.” Lance closed his eyes as he thought of a good first wish. What could he possibly wish for? He had everything he needed right here next to him. He smiled and blew out the sole candle, a stray tear finding its way down his cheek. The team cheered. This was all he had ever wished for.


End file.
